A Smashing Beach Vacation
by graphitewarrior
Summary: Chapter 3 up! / The Smash tournament participants go to the beach for a short vacation. What adventures can our video game friends have on the beach, on the boardwalk, and at the beach house? In progress, no pairings as of yet, maybe none. Note: All characters who were mute protags in their original franchises will also be mute for this fanfic. Palette swap char. also not included.
1. Chapter 1

I

Seagulls crowed and the ocean swirled. He looked above him at the blue sky. The sun was deviously taking cover behind a cloud, and it was a tad cold. It wasn't the perfect day for the beach, but they had just arrived, and most of them were eager to get into the sand and surf.

Link was not.

Having grown up in the woods, the elf was no stranger to water. It was the sand that he didn't like, or maybe more specifically the clumpy feeling of wet sand between his toes. He also hated being tossed around in the waves, and the result, sand and shards of seashells in the corners of his pointy ears and against his eardrums, was irritating.

And it was too serene and peaceful. He was on edge, as if he should be looking for enemies. Everyone on vacation with him had been his opponents since the fourth Smash Tournament had begun, but now they were all taking a break from the fighting before the semis started up. The tournament participants had gone to the beach for vacation during the past three tournaments, and each time, Link had returned to the boardwalk as soon as possible so that he could use the foot wash and go to the arcade. There, he would usually be alone, aside from Mr. Game and Watch and R. O. B., but those two also couldn't talk, so it wasn't too bothersome.

When Link finally got the chance, he started to slip away from the others, quickly escaping up the sandy hills. His progress was stopped when he bumped into something he didn't see and fell on his bottom. Getting up, he looked directly in front of himself. Greninja, a newbie to the tournament and a Pokemon, stood before him. Link felt slightly uneasy whenever he noticed its scarf-like tongue, and he was never the one who liked to welcome the newcomers. Mario did that job best.

Link shook his head and frowned to indicate that he was sorry. Instead, it grabbed him by the arm. Link jumped. It must not know that I don't like being on the beach, he thought. Greninja must have heard him thinking, somehow, and proceeded to drag him down to the surf nonetheless. Link decided to give up the struggle. He had been avoiding the beach for a long time, and if anyone knew what would be fun or interesting at the beach, it would surely be a water-dwelling creature.

Once at the shore, Greninja pointed at the waves and made a swimming motion, tilting its voice up at the end as if to ask if Link could swim.

Link nodded.

"Gre Greninja?" it said, as if it were asking, "Then why don't you?"

Link shook his head and frowned to show that he didn't like swimming. He gestured at the whole of the beach and shook his head. Greninja's eyes narrowed in confusion. Link guessed that this action meant that it couldn't understand why someone wouldn't like the beach.

Greninja's eyes lit up suddenly, and it motioned for Link to follow it further down the coast, away from the others. It walked until it was a few steps away from the forbidden zone for swimming, then it ran out into the surf. Link watched and waited; the creature appeared to be searching the waves intently. It returned with its paw closed, opening it to show Link what it had found: a seashell. Not just a shard, but a complete seashell. Link's interest was piqued. He had always found shells somewhat beautiful, but he didn't usually have the patience to deal with wet sand, rough waves, and painful shell shards. Whole shells, however, meant that he wouldn't have to deal with roughness or jagged pieces. He was eager to join the hunt.

He pulled off his beach sandals and put them behind him so he wouldn't lose them, then followed Greninja into the surf. In minutes he had found half of a full-sized clamshell; it was pure white on the inside with parallel gray ridges on the outside. Link wanted to be able to ask Greninja where it had found such a perfect shell-hunting spot. The next shell he found was an attached pair of angel-wings; he kept finding lady-slippers and whole halves of scallops. Greninja even found some seaweed, unfortunately for its shell-hunting efforts. Link showed his finds to Greninja, and it beamed with excitement. He briefly wondered whether it would have done this activity on its own without Link.

Of course. That must have been why Greninja picked this spot. It knew that Link didn't want to be around many others.

Or maybe it just knew the right places to find mussels and scallops.

Link's hands didn't touch an arcade machine the whole day until after dinner when everyone was trying them out. Surprisingly, he had loved going shell-hunting, and he didn't mind the sand now, as long as he was still able to get to the foot wash.


	2. Chapter 2

II

For many participants, the Smash tournament took place in a world entirely different than their own, and thus the vacation time spent at the beach was massively interesting. Whereas Mario, Little Mac, or even the Pokemon found cheese pizza or Ferris wheel rides quite normal, others were particularly interested in the mundane. The master of the Monado, Shulk, was one such participant; he was exploring and looking at everything there was to be seen.

After the Smash participants had arrived on the boardwalk for the day, Shulk began to walk around and observe life around him. He first saw boy robot Mega Man trying to operate a crane game and acquire a cheap stuffed animal, although the machine was eating up his spare quarters with every failed attempt. Shulk walked up near the arcade and watched the crane move. Mega Man failed once again and shook his head, walking away.

"Hey, wait," Shulk called. Mega Man turned around. "Do you have any more coins I can use?" Mega Man handed him four quarters. Shulk walked up to the crane. It cost twenty-five cents; he had four tries to get an animal.

First attempt, Shulk couldn't aim the robot arm properly. Second attempt, he couldn't figure out how to grasp the stuffed animal, Third attempt, he spent too much time deciding which one he wanted and used up all the allotted movements. Fourth attempt, the crane dropped the stuffed animal right as it picked it up. The final result gave him an excuse to put the blame on the crane. He wondered why the challenge had been so difficult for Mega Man. He was a robot, the machine was a robot—robots should be on some kind of mechanical wavelength, shouldn't they? He, Shulk, wouldn't have this challenge made any easier by the crane being a robot, however.

He continued along until he came upon Little Mac, his roommate at the beach house, standing on tiptoe at the French fry stand. He was drizzling salt and vinegar on a plate of fries. Shulk beamed. They were served fries constantly in the dining hall on location at the tournament, and he ate them at least twice a week. He tapped Mac on the shoulder and whispered, "Can I have one?" Mac flinched before turning around and seeing that Shulk was there. He nodded and offered a fry, which Shulk took. The food on this planet was just slightly different from that of his own, and it was a bit jarring each time mealtime came around. However, it was delicious, and he loved fries so much—especially these ones, why were they so perfect?—that he decided to follow Mac down the boardwalk and take another and another after that. Oh, wait, he'd have just one more... and then he'd stop. Okay, maybe just one more…

Mac harshly grasped Shulk's arm, pulling it away from the basket of fries. Shulk jumped and drew his arms in toward his sides, embarrassed.

"Oh, Mac. I'm sorry. I guess I went a bit over the edge, 'm?" Mac nodded, breaking out in an exasperated grin and staring with wide eyes at Shulk.

"Yeah... I think I understand what you're getting at. Fries are the best, but I didn't know I could eat so much of 'em, either." Shulk and Mac laughed in unison.

After saying "see you later" to Mac, Shulk walked until he reached the ice cream stand, where he saw King Dedede and Kirby cooperating to get their frozen treats: Kirby was too short to reach the counter, and Dedede was just shy of it, so Kirby stood on Dedede's head and pointed to what each of them wanted on the menu, trying his best to replicate how people would say the words.

Shulk smiled at the peculiar sight. On his home planet he would have never expected to see a blue penguin and a pink orb-like puffball ordering food,—despite that one of his friends was an eccentric, middle-aged, fat, furry teardrop-shaped creature—but since his entry into the tournament, these sorts of happenings had become commonplace.

"Chokit anilla, pease," Kirby said. Shulk listened to the workers attempting to decipher his orders.

"Can you repeat that?" said the young woman working at the cash register. She was looking at Kirby as if she were completely baffled by his existence. That was normal, Shulk thought. After all, most of the Smashers were from other planets and looked outlandish to regular humans. Even he, Shulk, wasn't really a human, though he deceptively looked like one.

Kirby put all his effort into saying, "Chock-it villa!"

The employee said, "You mean 'chocolate and vanilla?'"

Shulk was entertained by the scene until a foreboding thought appeared in his mind. In precisely two minutes, Kirby was going to receive that ice cream cone, and he was going to unexpectedly lose his balance, fall off of Dedede's head, and not be able to order the second cone. Because of his vision, Shulk knew he had to help Kirby out. He walked up and stooped slightly so that he was at eye level with Kirby.

"Kirby." The pink creature turned to face him. "When you get your cone, let me hold it for you, or else you might fall off of Dedede's head and drop it."

Kirby frowned. "No..."

"Kirb, trust me. I can see the future."

Kirby glared at Shulk, as if he were thinking, _Well, I can't disagree with that_, before grabbing the ice cream cone from the cashier. Kirby began to lose his balance, however, as he had stood on the tips of his feet—or were those his shoes?—to retrieve the ice cream; Shulk quickly grabbed the cone before Kirby fell. Kirby looked wide-eyed at Shulk.

"Tank you…"

"You're very welcome. Now, what is it that Dedede wants?"

"Camel!"

"'Scuse me?"

"…ca-eh-mull!"

"Ah! Caramel!" He laughed briefly and got to his feet, telling the cashier, "Double dip of the caramel." Kirby and Dedede gratefully inhaled their cones—literally. Shulk grinned at the sight. He always wondered whether those two could get sick from eating too much or if their stomachs were just bottomless pits.

That evening, Shulk pensively looked up at the stars as he walked home from the beach with the others to get ready for bed. He meditated on the crane game, the French fries, the ice cream stand. There were so many foreign and interesting sights to be seen on the boardwalk at the beach. That was for certain.


	3. Chapter 3

III

Coins earned from the Smash Tournament participants through challenges such as the Home-Run Contest and Target Game had been pooled to rent the huge beach house in which they were staying during their vacation. The monstrous house boasted four expansive floors, twenty bedrooms, thirteen bathrooms, a kitchen that was made up of three rooms joined together, several sitting and living rooms, an expansive dining hall, and a wraparound deck with stairs to lead to a huge swimming pool and accompanying oversized hot tub.

Considering that there were so many participants, almost all of them had to share bedrooms. Some pairings or groups were obvious matches, such as Mario and Luigi or Bowser and his son. Other pairs could not be more different from one another. Wario and Ganondorf quickly got on each other's nerves, whereas Captain Falcon was a confidant to his roommate through all four tournaments-Link. Pac-Man, the Duck Hunt duo, R. O. B., and Mr. Game and Watch all got along famously, bunking in the largest bedroom in the house.

One group of boys-well, one was a robot, but he certainly looked the part, and the angel was really about twenty-five but looked and acted relatively youthful—who were staying on the third floor were eager about the beach vacation as well as exploring the house itself: they were the tournament veteran psychic Ness and his roommates, Mega Man and Pit. Though each was well-behaved and had a strong moral compass, they liked to fool around every once in a while and got into trouble as a result. Last time, Ness and Pit were caught using the marshmallows (meant for s'mores) and seeing how many they could stuff in their mouths at one time as Mega Man looked on in confusion and amusement. As Ness woke up this morning, he couldn't help but wonder what fun the three of them could have today. They always had to be creative, since Pit and Mega Man couldn't really swim, and since Mega Man didn't eat. Ness was usually the one who got the ideas, but he never really considered what impression they were making on others. He just thought of fun activities he wanted to do.

"Ness!" Pit called sleepily from across the room. "I have a really good idea for what we could do today!" He stumbled eagerly out of bed, nearly falling on one of his wings on his way to the end of the bed. "I found these in the closet here late last night. They were left here from the last kids who were in this house."

Ness sat up in bed and found himself looking at a 120-color box of crayons. He perked up excitedly. Despite that he was thirteen, he hadn't grown out of coloring books quite yet. "There's a book, too," Pit said. "Let's get Mega Man up and go to one of the sitting rooms and get to work!"

Ness nodded and stepped down the ladder to the floor. Standing before Mega Man's bed, he grasped and shook the robot's arm gently. He opened his eyes and climbed out of bed, looking first at Ness and then at Pit before following his roommates downstairs.

Ness smiled as he opened the page of the coloring book to a scene of some kids and a beagle standing around a Christmas tree. It reminded him of his friends back home in Eagleland. He started coloring the kids in to look like himself, Jeff, Paula, and Poo. When he looked over at the dog, he noticed Mega Man was coloring the dog in as if it were his canine helper, Rush. Pit watched intently and helped color the sky.

Ness started wondering about what was going on back home. He could call his dad and even his mom any time he wanted, but he couldn't always reach his other friends. He frowned at the page as he continued adding stripes to the shirt of the boy he used to represent himself.

"What's wrong, Ness?" Pit said quietly.

Ness showed his index finger to Pit to tell him to hold on a second. He flipped to the empty page at the back of the book and wrote, _I'm missing home_.

"You mean you haven't before? Ness, you've been in this tournament more than anyone has!"

Ness grimaced and wrote, _I know, but maybe I'm getting a little sick of it_.

"That's why we're on vacation, though. To take a break."

_Maybe I'm just bored_, he wrote. _You guys can keep coloring without me_. He got up off of his knees and walked outside so that he could stand on the deck. He sighed. Maybe it was time that he retire from the tournament as a fighter. Even though he had experienced so much fun in the past, and especially cherished the time spent with the ones he had met in the first tournament—Mario, Luigi, Yoshi, Donkey Kong, Kirby, Pikachu, Jigglypuff, Captain Falcon, Fox, and Samus—it was starting to get a bit repetitive.

He thought back to the final fight to save the world with his three friends from Eagleland. It was because of Paula's praying and the love from their families and friends that came in response that Giygas could be destroyed. Now, Ness was feeling unloved. He thought as if no one knew from where he came anymore, and he felt less relevant in the tournament than Mario and Link.

"Hey, Ness! It's a nice day out-a here, huh?"

Ness turned around to see the green-clad, younger, taller brother of Mario—Luigi. Even if Luigi was kind of weird and was afraid of almost everything, Ness enjoyed being around him just as much as Mario. Luigi had always been less popular than his brother, and although he had gone on nearly as many adventures, they were often left undocumented because Luigi was never the one to rescue Princess Peach. _Of course_, Ness thought. _Luigi would understand what it's like to feel left out, to feel ignored._

Luigi walked up to the railing of the deck and asked Ness, "So, are you-a enjoying this vacation?"

Ness paused before shaking his head "no."

Luigi raised his eyebrows and frowned. "Why not?"

Ness shook his head again. He felt tears welling up in his eyes and turned his face toward that of Luigi.

"Hey-a now, we can't be-a having that! What's wrong?"

Ness mouthed, _No one likes me._

"Oh, poor kiddo." Luigi's expression drooped. "You know I've-a been there before. …Let me-a tell you something. Ah… Sometimes, I think you just-a have to make them… well, notice you're there. Get it? This is-a why I try to do different-a stuff than Mario does."

Ness shook his head, thinking, _It just won't work. They don't even know who I am._

As if he were on Ness's wavelength, Luigi added, "And if you are-a thinking, maybe your adventures are no longer popular or well-known... well, you can talk to Captain Falcon. I don't-a think he has gone on any adventures since ten, fifteen, maybe-a twenty years. But what matters is-a those people who do still care about what you did.

Ness nodded to show that he understood.

"Is anything else wrong? Maybe you are missing home."

_How did he know?_ Ness thought as he nodded again.

"I know. I get-a far more homesick than Mario. Focus on the people here, but if you want, we can-a go to the phone and make a call. Come on, let's-a go." Luigi put his arm around Ness and they walked inside together to get to the phone.

Once they had reached the phone, Ness dialed the number to try and reach his parents, first his mom, but the answering machine came on instead. He tried again—no response. He tried to reach his dad next, trying his business number three times. On the third time, his dad picked up. Ness was overjoyed, even though his dad couldn't stay on the line for longer than a few minutes, and most of what he had to say was concerned with Ness's finances, of course. When his dad hung up, Ness turned around and smiled.

"I bet you-a are much happier now." Luigi stood where he was before Ness had started using the phone, but now Pit and Mega Man stood next to him.

"Luigi told us that you were feeling like no one liked you," Pit said. "You know that's not true. Mega Man and I are your friends here, and so are a lot of others. It doesn't matter that not everyone knows who you are."

"That is-a right," Luigi said, smiling. "It only matters that some people know who you are."

Ness felt his eyes watering again, but he also noticed that Mega Man was holding something behind his back. He presented it to Ness. It was the coloring book, opened to the third page, a scene of the same kids and the beagle, this time sitting at a Thanksgiving table. The boy at the head of the table, the same boy that Ness had made into himself in the other picture, was colored in to look like Ness. Three people were modelled after Jeff, Paula, and Poo. Pit and Mega Man had drawn themselves on two of the other kids, albeit crudely. The beagle was colored like Ness's dog as he had drawn it in the other picture. Instead of the turkey, Pit or Mega Man had replaced it with a birthday cake with Ness's name written on it.

"It is tomorrow, isn't it?" Pit asked. "I seem to remember that from the last tournament. You'll be turning thirteen again, right?"

Ness smiled and nodded.

"We can't have you being sad for your birthday, then, huh?" Pit and Luigi laughed.

A crayon dropped out of the book onto Ness's foot. He picked up the crayon and wrote on one of the empty pages, showing it to his friends. He had written "THANK YOU."


End file.
